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Photo credit: ©M. MIGLIORATO/CPP. Vatican City, Apr 21, 2015 / 09:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid a torrent of recent news reports on persecuted Christians, Pope Francis reflected on those killed for their faith and said that these modern “Stephens” suffer as the Church's first martyr did. “The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness,” Francis told attendees of his April 21 Mass, held in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse. “In these days how many Stephens there are in the world!” he said, referring to the first...

A Nigerian bishop says that he has seen Christ in a vision and now knows that the rosary is the key to ridding the country of the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram. Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme says he is being driven by a God-given mandate to lead others in praying the rosary until the extremist group disappears. “Towards the end of last year I was in my chapel before the Blessed Sacrament… praying the rosary, and then suddenly the Lord appeared,” Bishop Dashe told EWTN News April 18. In the vision, the prelate said, Jesus didn’t say anything at...

As the U.S. Supreme Court readies to hear arguments in favor of same-sex marriage on Tuesday, April 28, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, urged pastors across America to preach and pray against it because "marriage was God's idea, and He will preserve it, with or without us." "We know that marriage is intended to be sacred, beautiful, and nourishing. If you do not influence your congregation's understanding of marriage, who will fill the void? Hollywood? Divorce courts?" asked Cruz in a letter sent to tens of thousands of pastors highlighted by CBN News. "Prayer moves our God to...

Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, head of the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria's Borno State, was in a chapel praying before the Blessed Sacrament last December when, he says, something extraordinary happened: Jesus Christ appeared holding a sword, which He offered to the prelate. According to Bishop Dashe, the moment he took the sword from Jesus' hands, it transformed into Rosary beads. He then heard Christ repeat three times, "Boko Haram is gone." The bishop recalls, "I didn't need any prophet to give me the explanation. It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram."...

By now you’ve probably seen the video. Simple text overlaid on sweeping and beautiful natural vistas set to a serene — but determined — instrumental soundtrack. Subtle stylistic choices: the use of lens flare, vintage film effects, and mirroring; the use of just enough motion graphics to make a point without being distracting. Beneath it all, a translation in Arabic script for the intended audience. Together, it forms the most potent and moving message I’ve seen addressing the rise of the Islamic state. It cuts through the noise, and offers the reality of God’s love and the opportunity for salvation to men...

Perhaps you will find no issue reflecting a greater divide among Utahns that whether LDS Church leaders have too much influence in the Utah Legislature. A new UtahPolicy poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that three-fourths of the faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say their church has “about the right amount of influence” on state lawmakers’ political decisions. But when you ask the same influence question of non-Mormons, you find super-majorities – 79 percent of Catholics, 84 percent of Protestants – say the Mormon Church has too much influence on Capitol Hill. Now,...

Imagine a president of the United States proclaiming in his or her inaugural address, “I do not believe in God. I do not believe in a hereafter…There is no hope, save in ourselves.” If something like that ever happens, writer Jeffrey Tayler’s dream will have come true. Tayler, who routinely trashes religion for the liberal online magazine Salon, complained in a Sunday article that several recent announcements of presidential candidacies have brought about “a media carnival featuring, on both sides, an array of supposedly God-fearing clowns and faith-mongering nitwits groveling before Evangelicals and nattering on about their belief in the...

Islamist networks in France and across Europe are increasingly organized and well-armed, but it is France that is sitting on a powder keg Just before Christmas, as I was walking along the streets of Paris, I happened to see the disgraceful cover of the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo, a failing satirical magazine well known for its insults against religion and general vulgarity. It showed the Blessed Virgin Mary in an outrageous, almost pornographic position. Such crudeness was not a first for Charlie Hebdo. Although the cover angered me, the spirit of Christmas overrode any hateful thoughts. Two weeks later,...

No excerpt due to copyright concerns. See the story here. http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/04/20/ed-fride-mayberry-guns-ann-arbor-catholic-priest/26086691/

Oliver Dashe Doeme, Bishop of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, minced no words this weekend in speaking of the atrocities of the jihadist group Boko Haram, which he called a “demonic cult.”

NOTE: Christians around the world celebrated Good Friday and Easter last week, which commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus we began a six-part series on these events by Dr. Peter Kreeft in which he examines each of the plausible theories attempting to explain what happened to Jesus at the end of his life, particularly whether he rose from the dead.Part 1 - 5 Possible Theories that Explain the Resurrection of JesusPart 2 - Rejecting the Swoon Theory: 9 Reasons Why Jesus Did Not Faint on the Cross Part 3 - Debunking the Conspiracy Theory: 7 Arguments Why Jesus’ Disciples Did Not...

Update April 20: In keeping with our regular practice, we contacted Catholic Relief Services on Friday morning for a response prior to publication, and gave them a deadline of 4pm. In this case they did not respond. However, by Monday morning, Estridge's LinkedIn and Facebook profiles were taken down.BALTIMORE, MD, April 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- As Catholic bishops throughout the U.S. face attacks for requiring Catholic teachers not to support same-sex “marriage,” new evidence shows that a vice-president at the bishops’ own foreign relief agency is himself “married” to another man.Critics say the news confirms Catholic Relief Services’ history of...

And I say this not just because I am in the movie. But yes, I am in the movie. Don't blink, though, or you might miss me. I have two speaking lines (I play a soldier in a hospital to visit wounded comrades). I say this because it is a magnificent movie. It opens April 24th in theatres across the country.“Little Boy” comes to us from Metanoia Films, the same people who gave us "Bella" back in 2006. Their very first film project, it, and they, took Hollywood by surprise by winning the Toronto Film Festival. There could have been no better title for what...

Psalm 112:1-4 Blessed is the Man that Feareth the Lord, and Delighteth Greatly in His Commandments. His Seed shall be Mighty upon Earth: the Generation of the Upright shall be Blessed. Riches and Treasures shall be in his House, and his Righteousness Endureth Forever. Unto the Upright Ariseth Light in Darkness: he is Merciful and Full of Compassion, and Righteous.

Terrorists release propaganda video showing two massacres of Christians from Ethiopia ISIS has released another video depicting the slaughter of Christians in Libya, showing footage of two massacres in which 30 Ethiopian Christians were killed.Before the executions a masked militant said: “To the nation of the cross, we’re back again… Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap.”“We swear to Allah … you will not have safety even in your dreams until you embrace Islam,” he added.Later a militant with a Yemeni accent said: “Those who convert to Islam are safe. Those who...

The Florida senator’s dabbling in multiple denominations shows a country more and more inclined toward a consumerist approach toward religion. American presidential candidates are often a good lens for looking at the state of American religion. For instance, the fact that 2012 was the first election in American history where no candidate was a mainline Protestant, after that branch’s virtual monopoly on the White House, reflected the mainline’s precipitous decline in numbers and influence over the 20th century. While the two vice-presidential candidates were boringly Catholic, Barack Obama ran as a nondenominational, basically unchurched Christian, and Mitt Romney as a...

8 new “Catholic identity schools” since 2000 as dozens more renew themselvesA Spanish Marxist once famously said, “Give me 10 universities, and I'll change the face of Europe.” It happened exactly as he said. So it is significant to note that there is a major Catholic higher education revolution underway in the United States and Canada. Eight new Catholic identity colleges have been founded since 2000 and more than 20 American colleges are promoting their Catholic identity — and that number could as much as double in the next 10 years. I work at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where...

The Islamic State (IS) has just released another video where it executes more Christians, this time for not paying jizya—extortion money demanded of the “People of the Book” according to Koran 9:29.

Amid misleading reports and accusations of academic freedom violations, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello of Santiago, Chile, sent a strong message last month in support of Catholic teaching and identity by effectively banning the dissident theologian Father Jorge Costadoat, S.J., from teaching theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PCUC). The Cardinal Newman Society spoke with Ryan Thomas, director of operations for Catholic News Agency and former South American bureau chief for its sister agency, ACI Prensa, to clear up conflicting reports and better understand the situation. In a letter dated March 24, Cardinal Ezzati Andrello withdrew his stamp of...

Churches that accept society’s dogma on marriage and sexuality may think of themselves as “affirming,” but the global church sees them as “apostate.” Meanwhile, it is the height of imperialistic narrowness for a rapidly shrinking subset of white churches in the West to lecture the rest of the world — including those places where Christianity is exploding in growth or where Christians are being martyred — on why they are wrong and how everyone else in Christian history has misread Scripture regarding the meaning of marriage. (RNS) Whenever people today say that Christianity needs to update and adapt its moral...